The National Board for Prices and Incomes was created by the government of Harold Wilson in 1965 in an attempt to solve the problem of

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reduct ...

in the

British economy The economy of the United Kingdom is a highly developed social market and market-orientated economy. It is the sixth-largest national economy in the world measured by nominal gross domestic product (GDP), ninth-largest by purchasing power pa ...

by managing wages and prices. The board's chairman was

Aubrey Jones Aubrey Jones (20 November 1911 – 10 April 2003) was a British Conservative politician who served as Member of Parliament for Birmingham Hall Green from 1950 to 1965. Early life Jones was born in Penydarren. He attended Cyfarthfa Castle Second ...

, formerly a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

MP, who resigned his seat to take the position. Amongst the other members was the academic Hugh Clegg. The board's initial topics, given by the government, were to deal with the pricing of soap, bread and road haulage. Its first report (July 1965) attacked

price-fixing Price fixing is an anticompetitive agreement between participants on the same side in a market to buy or sell a product, service, or commodity only at a fixed price, or maintain the market conditions such that the price is maintained at a given ...

by the British

Road Haulage Association The Road Haulage Association Ltd (RHA) is a private company limited by guarantee dedicated to the interests of the road haulage industry. It is the only trade association in the United Kingdom dedicated solely to road haulage. As a trade associ ...

. The association's combative response was to prove a typical reaction to most of the board's findings throughout its existence. Recommendations on wages were no more effective, especially as the

Transport and General Workers Union The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland – where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU) to differentiate its ...

was opposed from an early stage to the government's attempts at wage control. From 1966 onwards, the government introduced a series of Prices and Incomes Orders to limit price and wage increases by law. This was in effect the end of the voluntary policy which had been envisaged.

George Brown George Brown may refer to: Arts and entertainment * George Loring Brown (1814–1889), American landscape painter * George Douglas Brown (1869–1902), Scottish novelist * George Williams Brown (1894–1963), Canadian historian and editor * G ...

, the

Secretary of State for Economic Affairs The Secretary of State for Economic Affairs was briefly an office of Her Majesty's government in the United Kingdom. It was established by Harold Wilson in October 1964. Wilson had been impressed by the six-week experiment of a Minister for Econom ...

responsible for the board, was moved later that year to become Foreign Secretary. With the failure of Brown's national economic plans and especially after

devaluation In macroeconomics and modern monetary policy, a devaluation is an official lowering of the value of a country's currency within a fixed exchange-rate system, in which a monetary authority formally sets a lower exchange rate of the national curre ...

in 1967, wage control was more consistently opposed by British trades unions, and eventually in 1970, Wilson proposed to merge the board with the

Monopolies Commission The Competition Commission was a non-departmental public body responsible for investigating mergers, markets and other enquiries related to regulated industries under competition law in the United Kingdom. It was a competition regulator unde ...

, with Jones at its head. In the event the 1970 general election, was won by the Conservatives, who scrapped the organization. Clegg wrote a book on his experience entitled ''How to Run an Incomes Policy, and Why We Made Such a Mess of the Last One''. Subsequently, in 1972, the

government of

Edward Heath Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath a ...

revived the idea with a

Price Commission The Price Commission was set up in the UK under the Counter-Inflation Act 1973, alongside the Pay Board, in an attempt to control inflation. The Conservative government of Edward Heath, elected at the 1970 general election, had previously aboli ...

and a Pay Board, which were similarly unpopular, but the Price Commission was retained (and the Pay Board abolished) by the returning Wilson government in 1974.

Footnotes

References

* * * * {{cite journal , last=Thompson , first=A. F. , url=http://0-www.oxforddnb.com.catalogue.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/view/article/60357 , title=Clegg, Hugh Armstrong (1920–1995), industrial relations expert , journal=

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

, url-access=subscription , access-date=28 April 2014

External links

Catalogue of Hugh Clegg's papers on the noard
held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
Catalogue of William Brown's papers on the noard
held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick Labour in the United Kingdom Competition regulators Defunct public bodies of the United Kingdom 1965 establishments in the United Kingdom 1971 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Consumer organisations in the United Kingdom Inflation in the United Kingdom Regulators of the United Kingdom

See also

Footnotes

References

External links